Improved plate for artificial teeth



para I elta JOHN A. STRAIGHT. 0F ALBIONANEW YORK.

Letters Patent No. 97,244, dated November 23, 1869.

IMPROlIED PLATE FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH.

The Schedule referred to in these Lettera Patent and making part of the same.

`To all whom 'it 'may concern: i.

Be it known that I, JOHN A. STRAIGHT, of Albion, in the county of Orleans and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Dental- Plates; and I do hereby declare the following to be a clear and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings making part ot' this specification, in whichy Figure l is a perspective view of the full plate.

Figure 2 is a View of the lingual side of a partial plate;

Similar letters of reference indicato corresponding parts in the two figures.' y y My invention consists in making the .whole outer edge of a plate, made of hard rubber or other hard base, of a'softor elastic rubber or-other material, so y' that the plate may he"`more closely adapted to that portion of the mouth with which the edge ofthe plate Vcomes iu contact.

It is well known to those who manufacture plates for artificial teeth that it is almost impossible to obtain a perfect yimpression of the parts of the. mouth with which the edge ot' the plate comes in contact on account of the 'muscles ot' the face` attachingv so low upon the dental arch. g

With this device, the parts about which there are any doubts may be trimmed away upon the parts of the model upon which the elastic edge shall rest, and stili-l the plate will be worn with comfort and ease on account of the yielding nature of the edge.

There is also a class of mouths that have enlarge- Aments upon the outer side of the dental arch, especially at the condyles of the jaw.

1n this class ot' mouths itis an impossibility to pass the edge ot' a plate 'over the enlargements, and still have it set closely to the mouth, unless it shall he of an elastic or yielding substance, and this is almost invariably the case where teeth are inserted immediately after Vextraction and before the alveolar process shall have absorbed.

My invention is peculiarly adapted to this class of cust-s.

In the drawings- A. represents the hard base of a dental-plate, and

B the soft or elastic edge, which extends partially or wholly around the edges of the hard base A.

I make the plate A the same as ordinarily, except that at the location which I desire. to have soft or elastic I pack in the mold for the plate a rubber that does not harden by the process of vulcanizing, but remains in a' Asoft or elastic state, or any other material which will answer the purpose.

Ido not desire to have the soft part of the plate extend any further down in upon the hard plate than the muscles of the face or palate shall extend, except in cases of enlargements upon the mouth, Ywhen it should extend far enough to allow the plate to pass over easily, as the strength of the plate to resist the power used in masticating food depends entirely upon the hard'part of the plate. Neither do I think that the fit of a plate can be assistedby extending a thin sheet of soft rubber under the plate, as a perfect im-v pression maybe obtained of thehard parts of the mouth -upon .vhieh a hard plate would rest as easily as if it had a soft lining, a hard base alone being much thinner and lessv buugling in the mouth.

It' it is desired the elastic edge may be so arranged as only tobe used upon a portion of the edge of the hard plate.

I do not claim a hard base with a'soft rubber lining; neither do I claim an elastic base wit-h elastic edges,

constructedon a hard skeleton frame; but

\Vhat I do claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

lhe combination of the hard base plate A for the i roof of `the mouth, and the soft elastic edge B on the rear part of the same, substantially as and -for the purpose described.

JOHN A. STRAIGHT.

' IVitnesses:

GEO. M. HOPKINS, Guo'. P. HOPKINS. 

